The Barmaid and the Conman
by Kitty0dair
Summary: What if a barmaid joined the boys on their adventure? A barmaid with a very interesting back story meets the boys in the first gambling scene, and ends up joining them, quite by accident, on their adventure. Another what if, what if Miguel slowly fell in love with her over the course of the story? Well, we'll find out.
1. They Meet

"Show," he lifted his arm.

"Me," the crowd held their breath as he wound up.

"Seven!" The dark haired spaniard released the dice from his hand.

If I were to freeze this moment, just before the dice stopped rolling, I would laugh.

The dark haired one, name unknown to me, was a tall, lanky fellow, but at the moment he was kneeling and hunched over, face hidden in his hands. His fair haired partner had his face strained in anticipation, mandolin cradled to his chest.

The other gamblers, sailors who came to my bar last night, had nervous looks on their faces, I would to, if I bet every last coin to my name on some dice. At least it wasn't the loaded ones they were using earlier. Nobody else had noticed, but seriously, every single time on 5 and 2?! And they were never nervous! I smell a rat.

Anyway! The other women, all dressed much finer than me in my tattered bar maid's dress, all had the most idiotic looks of admiration on their faces. Stupid pigs, all they have on their minds is finding a man to dote on them.

Yeah, no way. The man I would want doesn't exist, not in this world or time. I want a guy who would respect me.

Oh well, onward.

One die had settled on four, but the other, more stubborn, kept spinning on a corner, finally making up its mind, and landing on three.

Seven, in case you can't do math.

The air was heavy with the feeling of disbelief. Until the fair haired man let out a short laugh. His partner uncovered his face, and smiled. Laughing gleefully, exclaiming a high-pitched "Seven!", he scooped up all the gold, and the fair haired one snatched the map from the head sailor, still in disbelief. Interesting. The fair haired one seems uninterested in things like money, instead going for the promise of adventure, meanwhile the dark haired one seems to be far more interested in money. Greed and adventure, I guess they do go together.

Still laughing, the men gave the sailors shit eating grins, the dark haired one saying "Pleasure doing business with you!" sarcastically, and then his dice fell out of his pocket, landing on 5 and 2. The head sailor kneeled down, looking suspiciously at the dice, and banged his fist on the ground. The dice lept an inch in the air, before landing back on 5 and 2. The action was repeated, same result.

"I knew it!" no he didn't. "Your dice are loaded," A group of gasps could be heard. Wow, you only just figured that out. Everyone paused for a second, before turning to look at me. Oh shit, I said that out loud. "YOU KNEW?" the sailor roared. "Rotten wench! I bet you're in cahoots with them!" I turned to look at the men.

"I'll pass, I'd rather not do illegal things," the sailor took out a knife, slowly approaching me, and I rolled my eyes. "I really did not want to do this today," I muttered, taking out my twin daggers from my skirt. The sailor smirked.

"Put those away, girl, before you hurt yourself," I scoffed at him, before twirling my daggers until the rested comfortably in my hands. The sailor couldn't get it through his thick skull that I knew what I was doing, and swung at me. I blocked, quickly going on the offensive. Swinging my left dagger as a distraction, I disarmed him with my right, the knife going flying, landing… in front of a soldier.

"Damn, this is not what I needed today," I groaned. The conmen looked at each other, seeming to communicate through looks and raising of their eyebrows. Finally the fair haired man, having approached me, whispered in my ear.

"Play along," I rose my eyebrow at him, but nodded. He rose his hand, very obviously, so the guard could see, and I realized he was going to pretend to knock me out. I raised my daggers in "defense", and he backed up, but his partner had come up from behind, again rather obviously, and "knocked me out". I slumped and fell to the ground.

Once this was done everyone was silent for a few moments, before everyone ignored me and focused back on the conmen. They started to argue about the loaded dice, apparently grabbing swords from soldiers. While everyone was watching them, I had stood up, grabbing a cloak off the back of a chair and wrapping it around myself, and pulled up the hood. When they threw the swords to the ground I made my move, deciding to follow them, I climbed up, quicker than anyone else there, seeing as no one caught me, I too jumped off the other side of the roof, landing on my feet. The two con men screamed, quite girly, and I took off my hood.

"Oh, it's you," the dark haired one said.

"Yeah, thanks for the help back there, but now I owe you, so you're stuck with me until I save your sorry asses," I smirked and winked at them, but then I realized something. My eyes widened, and I meekly muttered, "bull,". They seemed confused, before following my gaze, and seeing….

A bull.

"Oh." The fair haired one mumbled.

"Uh… How about, you… pet it, and I'll…." I rose my eyebrows at the dark haired one. "RUN!" he screamed, running off. I quickly helped the other one up off the ground, running after the dark haired man.

"Oh, well THANKS A LOT!" the partner next to me yelled up at the other one. We scrambled up a wall, that being a little awkward for me in a dress, but just as we made it to the top, the bull headbutted it, the wall going flying and us sliding down it, running away.

"There they are!" some sailors exclaimed, pointing at us, we made a quick turn, them seeing the bull and running away. But we weren't out of trouble yet, there was a group of soldiers blocking the road. I flipped over them, thanking whatever holy deity there is out there for my days in the circus, and the boys went around them through houses.

"Thank you!"

"Bye!" We kept running, the bull ramming into the soldiers behind us, but more took their place, shooting at us with their crossbows. We continued, dodging arrows and people, but eventually we came to a ledge, three barrels full of water were at the bottom and we glanced at each other.

"I'll bet we can make that," the fair haired one said, and I nodded.

The dark haired one turned to look behind us, where a dozen soldiers were running towards us. "Two pesetas, says we can't," We jumped, the fair haired one yelling "YOU'RE ON!" Before we landed in the barrels, a bunch of water spilling out.

"You lose," the one on my left, blondey, said, and two pesetas were flicked into my barrel.

"Pass that on, will you?" I heard.

"Nope, mine now!" I laughed.


	2. They Learn

I could hear exclamations of confusion and surprise from the soldiers on the ledge above us. "Where did they go?" was the most common thing heard. We had placed the lids on the barrels we were in and were waiting for the soldiers to move on.

"HOLY SHIT!" I yelled when I felt movement. I felt sick to my stomach as it felt as we were spinning in mid air.

"What's happening?" I heard the dark haired one whisper.

"We're both in barrels, that's the extent of my knowledge," the other one said. We stopped moving, only to be put on our sides and rolled. I heard them conversing to the left of me, and they were saying something about lifting the lids on their barrels, and running to the docks.

"1, 2, 3!" they pushed, but were unable to lift it, as there was a chest on top of their barrels, I however, was not so fortunate, as I popped out of the barrel, and onto the deck of a ship, in front of the sailors from earlier. They all stopped, and glared at me.

* * *

Next I knew, I was in chains in front of Cortes, the conquistador in charge of the voyage that I was apparently a stowaway on. Me being the loyal idiot I am, didn't tell anyone that there were actually two more stowaways, and pretended that I was alone. No matter how much I tried to claim that I didn't know it would be sailing today and just wanted to take a look, a bullshit story but the only one I could come up with, they wouldn't believe me and I was sentenced to be flogged, enslaved in Cuba, and the some more flogging. Yay me. I'm so proud of my split second decisions.

I was below deck after I got a couple lashes, when I heard the chatter and boisterous laughing of the crew stop suddenly. It was dark in my cell, so I assumed it was most likely nighttime. I then heard the two idiots I decided to follow start talking and rambling. I rolled my eyes, trying to stand up so I might be able to hear better, but immediately regretted that decision as my back screamed in protest, and I could feel some of the wounds that had closed up reopen. I collapsed on the ground with a thud, just as I heard chains being put on the boys. Great.

Cortes issued the same punishment to the boys as he did me, however they weren't flogged immediately, unlike me. They were unceremoniously dropped into the cell with me, and they started talking, planning an escape. I could feel myself losing consciousness from the pain, and groaned in hopes that they would at least take notice of me so they wouldn't step on me. They let out two of the most girlish and juvenile screams I've ever heard, and as they started slowly walking towards me, I passed out.

* * *

When I came to, my head was elevated, and I wondered how someone got my a pillow. However, I was in too much pain to even bother with trying to figure that out, so I turned over onto my side and snuggled further into the pillow.

"Uh…" I heard from above me. I opened my eyes, and found myself staring right at the crotch of the blonde man. I let out a small shout of surprise and scooched away, sitting up, ignoring the fact that my back was protesting.

"I'm so sorry!" I gasped, backing further away.

"It's alright, just uh… take it easy," he held his hands up, in the universal gesture of 'it's okay'.

"Take it easy?" I asked, not understanding.

"Your back is pretty bad," the dark haired one said from next to me, I hadn't even noticed he was there. "How did that happen?"

"They, uh... they gave me a couple lashes before throwing me down here," I explained.

"That's a bit more than a couple for it to have been bleeding that much," the blonde one said, and I looked over at where I was laying earlier, seeing a puddle of blood. Right, I almost forgot about my circus years, they must have got some of the scars. I held my head.

"I am _way_ too sober for this," I groaned. They looked at me quizzically, and I sighed. "I'll explain at some point, but for now we're cell mates, so I'd like to know who you are,"

They exchanged a look, seeming to have a conversation with their eyes, much like earlier, and then they shrugged.

"Miguel," the blonde one said, giving me a small smile.

"Tulio," the dark haired one introduced himself, giving a small wave. I smiled.

"Rose," I said, offering them both a smile. I would've shaken their hands but I didn't trust myself to move. Miguel's smile grew, and I wondered what was going through his head. Tulio moved towards a beam, and started banging his head against it, deciding he was done with the conversation. "Is he…?" I started to ask Miguel wondering if Tulio was okay, but Miguel waved the question off.

"It helps him think," Miguel explained, and I nodded.

Miguel and I conversed for the rest of the day, talking about each other's pasts, leaving out the gruesome bits on my part, not ready to reveal the abuse I went through in the circus. I found out he was 28 and originally from Britain, but then moved to Spain with Tulio once his parents died. Tulio was actually from Spain, however he was visiting relatives in Miguel's town when Miguel's parents died. Apparently there was a sickness that killed most of the adults in the town. I was originally from Portugal, but joined a traveling circus when I was 11, I'm 24 by the way. I stopped the circus two years ago and became a barmaid.

"What did you do in the circus?" Miguel asked.

"Aerial silks," I said, causing Miguel to blush. I then realized that most people found the revealing clothing people doing aerial silks wore odd and scandalous. It was just a thing of life for me, I was never ashamed because I thought it was natural. It was then that I looked up and realized that it was night time.

"Well, good night boys," I said, carefully laying down on the floor as to not aggravate the lashes on my back. I closed my eyes and let the rocking of the ship I was being held prisoner on lull me to sleep.


	3. They Plan, They Dream

When I woke a couple days later, the sun was peering in through the bars on top of our cell, Tulio was banging his head against the beam again, and Miguel was…

Where was he?

I got up, and looked around, and he was right behind me, I had slept in his lap, again! I could've sworn I fell asleep on the floor last night! I carefully scooted away from him, mindful of my injuries, but he pulled me back into him. I yelped and he awoke with a start. As soon as he noticed the position we were in he scooched back with a strangled grunt. I sent him a small smile which he returned, and I heard Tulio groan. I hadn't even realized he had stopped banging his head on the beam.

"Are you two done acting like teenagers? I need to think!" he whined. I rolled my eyes and scooched so my back was to the wall. Miguel sat on my left, directly under the hatch to the deck. I jumped in surprise when a red blob feel through the bars and directly onto Miguel's stomach.

"So uh…" he broke the silence. "How's the escape plan coming?" Tulio paused for a second.

"Wait… I… I'm getting something.." He banged his head on the beam twice more then turned to face us with his finger pointing upwards. As he went on to explain the plan, I was skeptical, and Miguel seemed to be as well.

"Back to Spain?" he asked. "In a rowboat?". Tulio nodded, smiling with pride. I rolled my eyes. "Well I like it!" my eyes widened. "How do we get on deck?" I raised an eyebrow, wondering that as well. Tulio went on to explain the plan again, still leaving out the detail of how we get on deck, which, might I add, was the most important part if we wanted to escape. I rolled my eyes and Miguel reared back.

"Oh, great! Sensational!" Tulio had an offended look on his face and yelled at Miguel to come up with a plan of his own. "What? You're the one with the plans!" Miguel exclaimed. I rolled my eyes, snatching the apple out of Miguel's hand. As I was about to take a bite we heard a whinnie from on deck. I paused, a plan formulating in my head. One thing I had learned from the circus was that animals are almost always easy to manipulate, especially with food.

"Wait, wait!" Miguel exclaimed, and I looked at him strangely. "I've got something, help me up!" he seemed to have the exact same plan as me, which was rather strange. I tossed him the apple as he coaxed the horse over. How he knew the horse's name was Al Tivo was beyond me, but eventually the keys fell through the bars.

"Well, it's _not_ a prybar," Tulio deadpanned. I let out a short laugh, and took the keys from the ground, hiding them in my skirts.

"We better get some rest, if we're going to be escaping tonight, we'll need all the strength we can get," I told the boys, and they nodded. Miguel going back to his usual sleeping spot, Tulio lying down a couple feet away. I scooched over to Miguel, deciding not to fight the urge to cuddle with him, and snuggled into his side, falling asleep quicker and more peacefully than I had ever before.

I was not plagued by nightmares (or memories, rather) of the circus, to my surprise. Instead I dreamt of a beautiful tropical island, exploring it along with my younger brothers, who 7 years previously had been enslaved and sent to Cuba. In my dream, they were alive and healthy, and they were never hungry, with smiles on their faces.

 _They told me stories of what had happened to them while they had been on the island, and fell asleep in my lap. I heard a twig snap, looking up to see Miguel walking through the trees to the clearing we had set up camp. I was not at all surprised to see him, instead smiling and gently placing Filipe and Paulo on the ground, and running to him, hugging him. As we leaned in for a kiss I could hear him saying my name._

" _Rose," he said softly, I hummed in response._

"Rose." _he said again, more clear. I was confused._

"ROSE!" I jolted awake. Holy shit what was up with that dream? I sat up quickly, apologizing to Miguel, and then I winced, my back was not healing very well.

"It's time," was all he said, sending me a soft smile, the same one I had seen in my dream, and helped me up.


	4. He Reflects

**(A/N): I have decided to switch point of views every three chapters, and so with the first three chapters in Rose's point of view, I will condense what has happened into one chapter in Miguel's point of view. Tulio will be joining me at the end of this chapter for a quick talk about what we think about Miguel and Rose's relationship so far.**

It had been a long day, and even though I had spent years building up callouses playing my mandolin, my fingers hurt. I had been strumming non stop, wooing a couple women, most of whom were swooning. When the sailor, who I assumed led the gang we were gambling with, proposed we use his dice for a map, I was ecstatic. Here was what I had been waiting for, longing for, my whole life! Adventure was right there, and as I scanned it, I realized we had to do it. It was our destiny, our fate. And as I expressed so to Tulio he scoffed and threw the loaded dice in my face.

Once I convinced Tulio he started getting ready, and I went and got nice and close with a young woman, seemingly quite well off. She giggled, and I heard a scoff. My head snapped in the direction the scoff came from and that, my friends, is where I saw her. A beautiful girl stood by the archway, in a tattered barmaid's dress, looking at the other women and rolling her chocolate colored eyes. She had no shoes on her feet, and her wavy brown hair had no way of being contained, so it fell in her face. Her aura was one of confidence, yet everyone in the vicinity towered over her short stature. My gaze lingered on her no longer than a few seconds, before I turned to the sailors, strumming my mandolin and going to stand next to Tulio. An abrupt jolt to my mandolin caused me to stop strumming, looking over at Tulio who aggressively told me to "Stop that!".

"Show. Me. Seven!" Tulio ground out from his clenched teeth, throwing the dice and covering his eyes to avoid the mass humiliation that he was sure would come. The first die landed on four, and as the other die continued to spin, no one was breathing. My eyes glanced over to the beautiful woman in the corner, who seemed uncaring to this whole ordeal, and then back to the dice. The second die finally stopped spinning, landing on a… three! 4+3=7 thank you very much!

I ran over to the sailor holding the map and snatched it out of his grasp quickly, him and his friends still standing slack jawed. As Tulio picked up the gold and jewels, our diced tumbled out of his pocket, landing on 5 & 2\. The sailor, suspicious, leaned down, testing the dice, before shouting "I knew it! Your dice are loaded!".

"Wow, you only just figured that out." A feminine voice said, as we all turned to look over to the girl I had been staring at earlier. She knew? Her eyes widened as we all looked at her, seeming to realize she said that out loud. As the sailor accused her of being in cahoots with us, a preposterous idea, though one I would have liked, he pulled out a knife, starting to go towards her. She rolled her eyes, pulling out twin daggers from under her skirt, and my eyes widened as I realized she knew exactly what she was doing handling those dangerous weapons.

The sailor was quickly disarmed, his knife flying in front of a soldier. My head snapped to Tulio.

Tulio - Left eyebrow raise, right eyebrow raise (what should we do?)

Me - Blink, left wink (help her obviously)

Tulio - Eye roll, glare (fine but I'm not happy about it)

I approached the girl, whispering in her ear "play along". She rose her eyebrow in confusion as I rose my hand. After she was "knocked out" everyone continued on, ignoring her. Tulio and I went through "Escape Plan 0-4-7" And ended up on the other side of a house. Someone apparently followed us, landing behind us. We turned around with two manly shouts of surprise, then realized it was the girl. She was even prettier up close, and now I knew she was intelligent and resourceful as well.

"Oh, it's you." Tulio stated, calming down a bit.

"Yeah, thanks for the help back there, but now I owe you, so you're stuck with me until I save your sorry asses." She explained quickly, and I picked up on a slight Portuguese accent, she rolled her eyes, then froze, looking behind us and whispered "bull." Confused, I turned around to see… a bull.

"Oh," I mumbled. There actually was a bull.

"How about… you… pet it," Tulio suggested.

"Uh huh." I muttered, reaching out my hand.

"And I'll… RUN!" he scrambled to his feet and booked it, leaving me and the Portuguese girl to eat his dust. She quickly helped me up, and we ran after Tulio.

"Oh well THANKS A LOT!" I shouted after him, the two of us finally catching up.

We scrambled to get over a wall, the bull headbutting it and us sliding back down.

An extremely thrilling chase involving the three of us, the townspeople (who quickly fled at the sight of the bull), the bull, and some soldiers with crossbows and swords. We stopped short at a ledge overlooking the docks, directly below us were three conveniently placed barrels.

I turned to Tulio, "I bet we can make that." The guards were closing in.

"Two pesetas, says we can't!" he shot back, the three of us locking eyes and jumping.

"You're ONNN!" I shouted, us falling into the barrels perfectly. "You lose," I said once we were safe inside. I heard clinking of two coins before a *plop* of them falling into water.

"Pass that on will you?" I heard Tulio grumble to our Portuguese acquaintance.

"Nope! Mine now!" she laughed.

Suddenly we were moving, however due to us being in barrels we couldn't see a thing.

"HOLY SHIT!" I heard the girl exclaim.

"What's happening?" Tulio questioned.

"We're both in barrels, that's the extent of my knowledge," I responded, just as confused as he was. Suddenly I was jerked on my side and violently thrown around in the small space of the barrel, and I could only assume we were being rolled.

Tulio and I devised a plan of lifting the lids, and running to the docks.

"1, 2, 3!" We counted, pushing against the lid with no success. We heard a scuffle, and a nervous 'hey guys…" from the girl, and I realized she must have gotten on deck. A couple minutes later, her screams were heard echoing throughout the ship. Growing worried, I consulted Tulio, deciding on trying one more time, we counted to three once more, and popped out of the barrels.

Looking around, we noticed the sailors from earlier, I looked to Tulio as we slowly lowered back into the barrels.

"Who ordered the… um… pickles?" Tulio questioned, trying to close the lid, before we were shackled and put before Cortes.

After hearing our punishment, all that was going through my head was our destination. "Nice, Cuba!"

We were unceremoniously thrown in the brig, then we started to whisper to each other.

"What should we do?" I asked him.

"I don't know, give me a bit to think of a-" Tulio was cut off by a soft groan coming from the corner of our cell. We again let out two very manly shouts of surprise, before seeing a figure slumped in the corner. Looking over to Tulio, he nodded, and we slowly started to walk towards the figure on the floor. A thump was heard as what I assumed was their head smacked on the floor, and my eyes were finally able to make out their face. It was the Portuguese girl!

"Shit!" I exclaimed, rushing over to her, lifting her head and placing it in my lap. Tulio meanwhile was staring at her back, I followed his gaze and saw her dress was soaked with blood and torn from whip lashes. We looked at each other in surprise, because the damage to her dress didn't match how much blood there was, but we were too tired to talk about, so we decided to go to sleep.

* * *

When I woke up, the Portuguese girl was still unconscious, and lying in my lap, but Tulio was awake and formulating a plan. Banging his head against the wall helped him think, so I left him to it. Suddenly the girls head was nuzzling into my crotch, and if I wasn't awake before, I was now.

"Uh…" I really hoped she'd wake up. Her eyes slowly opened and then quickly widened. She shot up and scooched away from me, hurrying out an "I'm so sorry!" as I held my hands out, ready to catch her in case she fell, I didn't want her to hurt herself.

"It's alright," I assured her. "Just, uh, take it easy…" She repeated the statement, confused, and Tulio informed her how bad her back was. He asked her about it, and she groaned when he called her out on her bs answer.

"I'm way too sober for this," she said, and we both looked at her in confusion. Usually women weren't so blunt. I have no problem with it, it's just odd in this society.

The girl changed the subject, asking who we were, well, demanding it really.

"Miguel," I said, giving her a small smile.

"Tulio" he sent a slight wave in her direction.

She smiled. "Rose," oh my gosh even her name is pretty. She seems like some fairy tale character I'd read about when I was younger. Tulio nodded, going off to the side to continue formulating a plan, and Rose and I conversed until sundown. I learned that she was 24, and originally from Portugal (I was right!). She joined a travelling circus when she was 11, and left two years ago in Tulio and my city to become a barmaid. She'd never owned a pair of shoes, I found learned, which was very interesting. I asked her what she did in the circus.

"Aerial silks," I blushed, imagining her in a leotard, and almost had to slap myself to get me to stop thinking about it.

"Well, goodnight boys," she said, lying down on her side, and I waited until her breathing evened out until I turned to Tulio. I sighed.

"What am I gonna do?"

"Did you say something?" he asked.  
"Nothing, brother," I responded, sighing once more, before deciding to get some sleep as well.

* * *

It had been a couple days, and I was enjoying moving Rose into my lap every night after she fell asleep, it gave me some comfort. I was half asleep, and I felt the warmth of her body start to leave, so I pulled her back into my chest, she let out of yelp of surprise, and I was then fully awake. Letting her go, slightly sad that I couldn't hold her longer. I pretended to be embarrassed, scooting back, when I heard Tulio groan loudly.

"Are you two done acting like teenagers? I need to think!" he exclaimed, and now I was actually embarrassed. Rose scooched so she was sitting on my right, and she jumped when an apple fell into my lap.

"So uh…" I started. "How's the escape plan coming?" Tulio told banged his head twice more before telling us the plan. Rose seemed to be pretty skeptical, but I liked the plan. I expressed as much, then asked how we got on deck. Tulio repeated the plan, again leaving out the important detail, and I threw my hands up.

"Oh, great! Sensational!" We started to argue before I actually came up with a plan for once, finally getting the keys by luring Al Tivo with an apple. Rose suggested we get some rest, so we all laid down, ready to sleep.

A couple hours later it was the middle of the night, and I woke up, going to shake Rose's shoulder.

"Rose," I said softly, she hummed, smiling. I repeated her name, louder. Her brow furrowed. "Rose!" I kind of shouted her name. She jolted awake, looking at me in confusion, shaking her head a little.

"Sorry," she said, wincing. Perhaps she wasn't being completely truthful about her back healing. I sent her a soft smile.

"It's time," I said as I helped her up.

 **Tulio: OH. MY. GOD. When they gone fuck?**

 **Author-chan: TULIO!**

 **Tulio: We all know it's gonna happen!**

 **Author-chan: Well, yeah, but YOU DON'T JUST ASK THAT ABOUT YOUR BEST FRIEND!**

 **Tulio: But…**

 **Author-chan: NO BUTS!**

 **Tulio: I happen to like butts…**

 **Author-chan:Do I need to get Chel?**

 **Tulio: NO I'LL BE GOOD!**

 **Author-chan: *Evil cackling ensues***


	5. They Escape

We silently climbed up onto the deck, the boys supporting me and having me fetch a ladder. Once we were all on deck, and my back was screaming in protest, I found a small knife lying on a barrel. Picking it up, the wooden handle had been etched with a rose. Fitting, isn't it?

As Tulio was putting provisions in the dingy, I spotted Al Tivo. He was staring at us as if he was offended, and nudged Miguel's back as he was tip toeing over to help Tulio out. He started petting the horse, telling him his thanks, and Tulio turned to him in exasperation.

"Miguel, he's a ruthless war horse," I glared, he seemed perfectly sweet to me. "Not some poodle, come on!" Tulio hopped in the boat, and Miguel swung over the rail as well, bidding Al Tivo an 'adiós'. I sent Al Tivo a smile, whispering to him.

"I'll get the boys to toss you the apple, okay hun?" Al Tivo huffed in satisfaction, and soon I was in the dingy as well.

"Hey Miguel, I think Al Tivo wants his apple," I suggested as they were lowering the boat into the water. Al Tivo started to whinny, wanting the apple. "What an impatient horse," I muttered, Miguel handing Tulio the apple to throw.

"Fetch!" Tulio flung the apple on deck, or at least we thought it went on deck until we heard a small splash, followed by another whinny, and then a much larger splash.

"Al Tivo!" Miguel shouted, diving into the water in what I wasn't sure whether it was bravery or idiocracy. I sighed, quickly getting up to try to help Tulio lower the boat, but we were already falling through the air, and I was knocked into the sea. Submerged, I tried to go back up, but the skirt of my dress was caught on a loose nail on the ship. Letting out a shout, releasing a bunch of bubbles and water filling my mouth, I started to pull on my shirt, but I didn't really have anything to use as leverage. Remembering the knife, I took it out of my cleavage, where I had stored it, and flipped it open, cutting quickly through my skirt and swimming up.

Breaking the surface I took in huge gulps of air, looking around for Miguel and Tulio. I saw them a little further ahead, feet over the side of the boat and Al Tivo munching on some of the provisions. So much for that…

I swam over, ignoring the screaming coming from my back, and hauled myself over onto the boat.

"ROSE!" Miguel shouted, engulfing me in his warm arms. I snuggled into his chest. "We thought you were dead!" he mumbled into my hair, and I shook my head. He squeezed me a little tighter and I let out a shriek of pain. Miguel quickly released me, taking his warmth with him.

"What happened?" Tulio was alert in a second, looking at me, then to my now exposed legs. Looking down, I noticed I must have cut myself by accident, and now that the adrenaline was wearing off, the pain was becoming much more noticeable.

"I had to cut my skirt from a nail on the ship," I groaned, leaning back and turning onto my side so I wasn't lying directly on my back. They gasped, and I looked back at them, confused.

"What?" I inquired, and Miguel reached out a hand as if to touch my back, but seemed to think better of it.

"Your wounds have… reopened…" he mumbled. "And we don't have anything to treat them with…" he trailed off. I groaned again, turning back around to face them.

"Don't worry, I've had worse, I'm sure," I said, waving them off even though that motion also hurt. They did not look convinced. "Get some sleep, work out how you're going to figure out which way Spain is," I mumbled, resting my head down on the small bench. Closing my eyes, I evened out my breathing, trying to fall asleep.

Someone must have thought I was already asleep, because suddenly I'm being pulled down, and into someone's protective embrace. He nuzzled his face into my neck, breathing deeply, and I opened my eyes a little bit to see Miguel peering at my face.

"What are you doing?" I asked softly, hearing Tulio snoring.

"Don't worry, mi corazón," He whispered sleepily. "Rest," pulling my further into him, I nodded, snuggling my head over his heart, letting the thump… thump… lull me to sleep.

I now knew why I woke up in his arms every morning, and it was not just because he was a sleep cuddler. It was deliberate. Now the question is… does he just miss a woman's touch? Or does he specifically want mine? I'll figure it out...


	6. They Land

It had been a couple days of starving, crying, and a little bit of insanity thrown in there. I was laying with my head in Miguel's lap, while he and Tulio leaned against each other's backs. I was pretty out of it, much worse off than the boys, having lost a lot of blood both from my leg and from my back.

"Tulio…" Miguel called, since when did he sound so far away? "Did you ever imagine, it would end up like this?" he asked.

"The girl and the horse are a surprised," there was a passing thought that I should be offended or something, but I was too tired to care. Maybe I'll just nap for a little bit…

I was abruptly woken by two happy surprised shouts of "LAND!" and a delighted winnie. Lifting my head up slightly, I saw the island from my dream… odd. My head slammed back down onto the wood of the boat.

When I woke again, my head was in a familiar lap, and two blurry faces were very close to mine.

"Is she okay?" I heard Miguel whisper.

"We gave her water, we covered her wounds, I'm not sure what else we can do until she wakes up…" That was Tulio.

"Wh-what happened?" I stuttered, and the two looked down at me. Miguel was smiling madly, while Tulio had a slight smile on his face.

"You passed out, love, we were worried," Miguel said, Tulio quickly cut in.

" _He_ was worried, I knew you'd be fine," he stuck his nose in the air.

"Awe, that's cute, worrying about lil ol' me, I'm touched, Tulio," I smirked, slowly sitting up. Looking around at where we had landed, I saw many unfamiliar trees and plants. We were on a beach, and Miguel had a machete in his hands, and were those… skeletons? Yikes.

"Where are we?" I asked, and Miguel smirked, while Tulio rolled his eyes.

"Mr. Adventure here brought the map," Tulio said.

"And we're right where it starts!" Miguel cut in, almost shouting. "Tulio and I agreed to look for El Dorado, but we're not leaving you alone, so if you don't want to go… we'll… figure something out," he explained. I smiled.

"Of course I'll go with you guys, you might end up needing somebody competent after all," I smirked jokingly, and Miguel and Tulio chuckled a little bit.

Miguel grabbed my hand, pulling me to stand, and then ran towards the jungle. "Onward!" he shouted. "We'll follow that trail!" Tulio and I glanced at each other. Al Tivo also looked a little skeptical.

"What trail?" Tulio voiced our thoughts.

"The trail…" Miguel started cutting and slashing at the vines at the entrance of the jungle. "That we blaze!" the curtain fell to reveal… a boulder. I couldn't help it, I burst out laughing. Miguel grinned at me, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. Once I calmed down I smiled sweetly at him, and he straightened. "That trail that we blaze!" he shouted, pointing to what seemed to be an entrance to the jungle. I rolled my eyes, looking over to Tulio who was dragging a very unwilling Al Tivo into the jungle after Miguel. I giggled.

"It can't be that hard Al Tivo! Plus, maybe we'll find you a friend!" I told him, looking around. Seeing some sort of odd armoured animal with a long face, I scooped him up. "Like him!" I said, then froze. "Oh dear I hope he's not poisonous…"

"What!?" Miguel was suddenly in front of me, picking up the animal that I had decided to call an armadillo, and checking my hands and arms. "Are you alright?" he frantically scanned me.

"I'm fine! I said, taking Army back from Miguel. "You're not poisonous, are you? Huh, Army? Yeah you're perfectly safe!"

"Army?" Tulio called back. "What?"

"That's his name, obviously!" Tulio's eyes bugged out his head.

"You've named him?" he shouted, and I laughed, Army snuggling into me.

"Why of course! I give everyone names! I just haven't decided on what yours and British Beau's are yet, oh wait, I found one! Just for him though, I'll think on yours, Tulio," I said, moving forward. I heard Miguel and Tulio awkwardly chuckle to each other, before talking in hushed voices. They turned back to me smiling, and Miguel pointed to a small gap in the trees.

"Onward!" he shouted, grabbing my hand and pulling me behind him.

"Hey! Hold on a min-" I shouted, blushing, but was cut off by Army curling up on my shoulder. "Ugh, whatever," I muttered, Miguel still holding my hand and dragging me through the jungle.


End file.
